Top writers call for changes to Oxford Junior Dictionary

Sir Andrew Motion photo: Johnny Ring

Internationally-acclaimed author Margaret Atwood, former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion and former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo are among 28 major literary and media figures who have today written to the Oxford University Press.

Over fifty nature words, along with many more associated with the countryside, landscape and farming have been cut from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. This is to make room for new words associated with the indoor lives of modern childhood, such as blog and MP3 Player.

Before Christmas, we ran a series of articles calling on the Oxford University Press to restore some of the lost words, many of which are redolent with cultural significance. Now some of the country's leading nature writers, poets, children's authors and illustrators are calling for a re-think.

Sara Maitland had already highlighted the OJD cuts in Gossip from the Forest: a search for the hidden roots of our fairy tales. She feels a double blow as words like elf and goblin have been cut as well. "Despite the Tolkien films," she says. "not only nature study, but nature magic, is going, too."

Sara points out that she didn't break the story. "I read about it in a wonderful essay by Robert Macfarlane in a book called Towards Reenchantment."

Despite the popularity of Sara and Rob's books, and the attention drawn to the OUP's decision, another edition was published in 2012 with none of the lost words replaced. In statements made at the time, and again last month in response to our campaign, the OUP cites the need for lexicographical rigour.

NATURAL LIGHT editor Laurence Rose says "I would certainly expect such rigour in the Oxford English Dictionary, but when you have to choose only a few thousand words to represent the English language for seven year-olds, you are making a social judgement, whether you mean to or not. And here we have a classic case of the law of unintended consequences."

Robert Macfarlane's forthcoming book Landmarks develops the theme. Robert says "it was one of two chief motives for the book's existence - the other being the 'peat glossary' I was handed on the Isle of Lewis...a beautifully precise and evocative word-list of more than 120 Gaelic terms for aspects of the moor."

Landmarks, published on March 6th, is a celebration of the language of landscape. “It opens with my dismay at the OJD deletions which I see as a symptom of the natural and the outdoor being displaced by the virtual and the indoor” he says. “I’m worried that the basic literacy of nature is falling away. A should be for Acorn, not Attachment.”

Award-winning author and ecologist Mark Cocker agrees, and sees a threat to nature as well. "Without language we will eventually lose the land itself" he fears.

War Horse author and former Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo said “my wife Clare and I started the charity Farms For City Children, and so we have witnessed at first hand the benefits for children of a sense of belonging and connection with the countryside and the natural world.”

The letter's authors point out that compared with a generation ago, when 40% of children regularly played in natural areas, now only 10% do so, while another 40% never play anywhere outdoors. They highlight the link with obesity, anti-social behaviour and friendlessness.

But they conclude that the Oxford University Press is well placed to provide cultural leadership and play its part in changing this situation. They argue that a deliberate and publicised decision to restore some of the most important nature words would be “a tremendous cultural signal and message of support for natural childhood.”

Shocked beyond describe that so many words that represent the very things our children have the greatest right of all to have the opportunity to come to know could be so mindlessly stripped away. Surely such things as newts and catkins are among the very few things left in modern so society that offer the chance for genuine wonderment, inspiration, intellectual development and connection to the real world in one. There are some things that the rules should be set aside for, without question. How can we hope to sustain what's left our most precious and irreplaceable assets if we are prepared to remove the next generation's means to learn about them? The Dictionary has probably played a part in the production of virtually all of the greatest literary and academic works we know. I'd gladly wager nature has made an even greater contribution to such work. It continues to enrich us unerringly even in the face of continued deterioration and abuse. This is no way to thank it.

Thank you, Amy Louise, for these thoughts. The response to this campaign in social media and the press is hugely encouraging and shows that nature is still a mainstream concern for many. I'll make sure the OUP is aware of how deeply and widely felt these concerns are.

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Grainne hines

13/1/2015 07:27:30 am

we must preserve these lovely magical words they are part of the patchwork of nature

If anything, the modern, "replacement" words should be the ones omitted. Children will naturally pick up the language of technology through everyday exposure to them as they grow, but by leaving out words about nature we might be depriving a generation (and future generations) of natural lore. Childhood is when you have the time to be in nature and to learn about it, let them learn the other words as adults.

Absolutely, Marc. To put it another way, do Sony, Microsoft and Apple really need a dictionary's help in inculcating their vocabulary into children's lives? Clearly nature needs all the help it can get.

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lori

31/1/2015 09:59:50 am

I feel the letter of protest send to Oxford did not state it's argument as well as it could have. The writers' primary complaint addressed the health and welfare of children, and although this is certainly of great concern, it is not the only concern.

The health and welfare of the planet is a far greater concern because without acorns, and minnows and wrens the entire balance of nature will be thrown off kilter, the food chain disrupted, without the natural world these children and their progeny will fail to even exist one day.

Do we really hope to survive in an artificial, genetically modified Montsanto world? Next Oxford edition expect "genetically modified oranganisms" to make the list, there's no time like now getting kids used to them.

If words are not even important enough to remain in a dictionary, perhaps they are not even important enough to remain in the popular consciousness at all, soon they will cease to have any meaning or value. Leopards and cheetahs will soon not only be eliminated from the page, but eliminated from the world.

Oxford is in the business of selling dictionaries but Oxford also has a social obligation as an authority on language, which influences thought, which influences action. Oxford needs to step up and meet it's higher obligations. I hope you won't give up demanding this of them. Their children live on planet earth too.

My whole life has been devoted to words and nature, and I have been working for wildlife under the name Natural Word for over 20 years. One of my favourite words is 'sylvan' and another is 'verdant' but simple nouns like 'meadow', 'bluebell', 'acorn' and 'clover' are great too. I think that the decision to abandon natural words in order to reflect current trends may appear logical, but is actually a short-sighted and retrograde step. I would recommend a twofold response to the recent rush towards the virtual at the expense of the real living world: to publish more books, magazines, newsletters, blogs, websites, films and music for children that describe the magic and wonder of nature, and to give them time in the great outdoors to discover these wonders for themselves. Otherwise, another generation will miss out and lose respect for the natural world, putting future lives in deep jeopardy.

PS 'The Wildlife Adventures of Super Fox', which I have written for Cornwall Wildlife Trust, with design and drawings by artist Sarah McCartney, is one of many recent books seeking to reverse the unhealthy trend to shut children away from nature. Please consider making it available in other counties through The Wildlife Trusts, so that youngsters throughout the UK can have fun discovering wildlife through its outdoor activities, crafts, games and wildlife cartoons, all year round. All proceeds go to wildlife education.

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Laurence Rose

19/3/2015 05:20:27 am

Thanks, Rowena. Keep in touch with this campaign here: http://www.naturemusicpoetry.com/news-and-blog/category/campaigns

and also the Wildlife Trusts blog here http://wtru.st/lostwildwords I suggest you pass the Super Fox information to the Trusts

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Jay

22/9/2015 07:49:19 pm

It seems to me that there's a misunderstanding about what dictionaries are and what they do. They're not holy books of languages, telling people what they can and cannot say. They're more like newspapers in that they simply report what words are in use. They follow languages, which is a reflection of the culture the languages stems from. This uproar is addressing a symptom and not the cause.

When was the last time any of you used the word "cygnet" or "stoat"? How about "blog"? Don't get mad at dictionaries because the culture isn't moving the way you want it to. If you want your children to learn about nature, then take them into nature and teach them about it. Words are useless if they're not used to communicate. Show it to them, let them smell it, taste it, see it, play in it, experience it. They will remember it, and it will mean something to them. If you're teaching your children about the world around them from a dictionary then that's a real problem. I doubt anything meaningful was ever learned from a dictionary. What your children will value is your responsibility, and mine, and the people around us.

I'm sorry to break this to you, but this isn't the dictionary's fault, it's ours.